I like the start of each New Year and the anticipation of what events will unfold and what memories will be made. It’s an undeniably good season for regeneration and renewal.

What I don’t like is all of the talk of New Years Resolutions. Nothing says failure to me like a resolution…”I’ll loose ten pounds”, “I’ll save more money”, “I’ll pay off my car loan this year”… The list is rather endless. Resolutions remind me of things we should or should not be doing. Who wants to be ruled by a “should”? We’ve lived with the implied “should” our entire lives. It sounds like judgment under a new name.

Rather than wasting our time on creating resolutions that go unmet, allowing regret and shame to enter our mindset, let’s look at setting New Years Goals.
Goals- just the word alone makes me think of good things, accomplishments, challenges that are made to be met, benchmarks just waiting to be hit and surpassed. Set GOALS for the aspects of your life that you like and even those parts that you don’t like. I bet it will help to make the parts of your life you don’t like into parts of your life that you’re now proud of, hurdles overcome, bad habits changed- Goals are life affirming and clarifying.

If you can write down a list of 12 Goals for 2017 and keep them visible and in front of you, I bet that you will enjoy December 2017 much more as you review your goal list and check off all of the ones you’ve accomplished.

I set personal goals … Read 13 books a year… easy for some- a good goal for me.
I set activity goals … Run three marathons, race in two 100 mile mountain bike races, join cross fit… training for events keeps me motivated and not to mention that “resolution” of eating better and losing weight will naturally happen as I have to conscientiously think of how I fuel my body for competition.
I set work goals…reach x amount of households with my craft…this means I have to get out of my introverted shell and learn marketing strategy and expand my reach into areas I’m not automatically comfortable with.

Take the next week to write out as much as you can and then scrub the list down to 12 Goals, setting both short term and long term goals for yourself and your family. And, if you have kids age 6 and up, get them into the habit as well. Goal setting and accountability can be family focused and character builders.

Do it! and then let me know how you did!